***ADVANCED CRITIQUE*** - Read Rules First

[Musiphonix]

I'm new to the forums but, here we go:

Created in spare time, couldn't do it again (can't remember the colours used).

[himself22]

For colors, use the color picker.

Didn't you just use polar inversion?

[Max10259]

@Musiphonix

Its blurred too much for my tastes. I like the fading of the colors and the design it makes in the middle. I would suggest adding lighter colors to the right side. The right side is too dark with just the purple. Also the line formed by the cyan and blue is too straight, you should curve it like the others or make it slightly crooked.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Max10259

[csm725]

@Musiphonix - Are you sure you wanted to post THAT in the *advanced* critique thread? Okay then, here goes!

Pointless piece. Simple to create. Nothing interesting about it. Nothing abstract either. Boring colors, no depth, no point (I said that twice). Like I said, doesn't do a good job at anything.

Edited September 19, 2010 by csm725

[Panic]

Well, here goes mine. I've only used PDN for about 4 days now but I want an honest opinion from people who dont know me and wont give me a sympathy "That looks great!"

Thanks guys

Edited October 3, 2010 by Panic

[mountnman]

the effects you have used are well done, but-

there seems to be no "depth" to your sigs... a background created with one or two techniques and the a fairly simple font wording in front-

your background tends to overide your subject(username); in the glowing line sig, for example, the use of white and light yellow lines that actually cross under the subject tend to make that subject blend in more than i would like, i believe that if the darker lines were used for the center of the background and the lighter lines used athe the edges you would have a much better effect

also, there is no supporting content(images, ect other than the back ground and subject)

one thing does stand out to the good -in the "glowing line 'panic' " sig - the blurred background contrasts nicely with the sharp font and swirls, you will notice this is missing from the "switchback" sig, causing it to have a less apealing appearance- to my eyes the font seems to "haze" into the background and i find it to "feel" out of focus, making my eyes want to slide away from it

i do like the background of the switchback sig but i cannot seem to see a link between it and the name- why did you choose that particular picture as a base?

.

.

for 4 days in- not bad at all, but you might want to consider which techniques/components to use with each other, which do not work well together and above all WHY use each one-

what i mean to say is these sigs seem to be backgrounds created to see the result and when you liked them, then you decided to put a user name on them, it works much better to picture what you want as an end result in your head, and then work until you have acheived that mental picture.. and i dont mean to say you shouldnt try thing just to see how the turn out, i have many, many such"backgrounds" stored waiting to find their use, or just because i like them- but, to me at least, these are images that you like/are proud of and are trying to force to become sigs

[bEPIK]

@Panic the fonts in your signatures are too in-your-face for the backgrounds that you have. Experiment with different combinations of layer blend modes; look at chrisco97's signature, see how the text "fits" with the rest of the picture? Also (the second signature especially) doesn't have much depth to it--sometimes that's okay--but when there's random lines all over the place generally the image is abstract and it has to have more than three layers of depth. The colour combinations aren't well thought-out, and they look better in black and white. My advice would be to learn about layers because it doesn't look like you're using them effectively. Do a few of the stickied tutorials, you'll improve quickly.

EDIT: since this has basically been a necropost (that image was posted over SIX MONTHS ago) here's a new image. I'm not trying to being disrespectful, but he hasn't logged in since last October and surely there are bounds of reason. Anyway, the stocks are a photo I took of lego peices and a soundwave that I took a screenshot of in foobar2000.

Okay, I was adding a stock of a city a nighttime behind this to fill my whole desktop. I messed around a bit and got this:

Edited March 20, 2011 by brad.pike

[SeasonalLove]

[chrisco97]

@Panic: It might just be me, but I HATE the blurred background in the glowing lines one. Looked much better without it in my opinion. I honestly think this one is the better of the two, but that needs to be fixed...in my opinion.

@Brad: I love the image. The colours are awesome and the sorta abstract feeling is really cool. I really like the idea of what you made it from as well. And the text fits really well. Keep up the good work!

@SeasonalLove: Has a cool look to it. Pretty simple, but I like it. I think you should crop it down and add some text and make a sig out of it. That would look cool.

[AirbusA340]

[FallenWings]

It might come up big.... any way the poem is not mine, its from bleach and 'rosa rubicundior, lilio candidior' in latin means redder than the rose whiter than the lily.. This was my first eva paint.net thing so give me tips and feedback!!

[xxRUSTYNAILxx]

Edit: Wrong part of the forum

Edited August 5, 2011 by xxRUSTYNAILxx

[PrismicHelix]

Ah, the Wonderful first post....

Well, here it is.

EDIT: This was, however painstakingly made COMPLETELY with Paint.NET

Edited October 5, 2011 by PrismicHelix

[mountnman]

well, i saw this over in the sigs thread, but since you put it into advanced critique- i will answer here-- and just a bit of forewarning.. being in this thread means we will point out what we like, but more importantly we will point out where we think it could use some improvement--so if youre thin skinned you might want to shy away from this thread in the future

that being said.. its a great first effort, with a nice use of basic tools and effects.. the background is interesting. i would like to know the techniques you used to achieve it

two things to point out as i believe could use a bit of improvement

first is the outside edge of the sig being a standard rectangle while the sig itself is not.. since a .png image supports transparency, you could have cropped the sig down to the edges of the grey border and not been left with that annoying black line on the left and top

second is the use of the bevel on the inside of the gray border, i think that you would have a better effect if the border had a dropshadow instead of the inside bevel, esspecially if the letters had a draopshadow as well... it would really make the detaisl stand out and give a better #D appearance

on the whoel, i like it

oh and welcome to PDN

Edited October 5, 2011 by mountnman

[LK596]

@FallenWings The image is decent, but mainly just clouds and some curves. Try adding some other alterations and effects. I also like how you included shadow underneath the text.

@PrismicHelix Interesting pic! I love the effect on the corners. The shadowing and text are good too, but the image is rather small and low quality. Also the grey border around it is just sloppy. Overall pretty good.

This is my image. It has been something I have been working on for my distinguishable logo, but I have reached a wall. I have remade the image from its original making the colors and shading better but I can't think of anyway to further improve it. Does anyone have any ideas?

The image is actually 3000x1500 but Photobucket didn't like that and made it smaller.

If the image doesn't show up use this link: http://i911.photobuc...pg?t=1326347740

[MadJik]

UK is hard to figure out! You could try to split the U K

I can't see any reason for the shading inside!

[bindegal]

Im use the Paint.NET very often, and are happy to use it.

Here is a star and buttons that i made, to show how great the program is.

Edited February 14, 2012 by bindegal

[barbieq25]

Oh boy! Such eye candy. Wonderful works. The glass & the brushed metal colours are truly awe inspiring. Welcome to the forum & we look forward to seeing more awesomeness from you.

[jallen]

Those stars and buttons are really awesome. Well done! My only suggestion would be to shade in the edges of the glass to transition to the metal - in the star, that is. That might be too much to ask, though, within Paint.NET's limits. Other than that, it's basically photo-realistic.

[bindegal]

Those stars and buttons are really awesome. Well done! My only suggestion would be to shade in the edges of the glass to transition to the metal - in the star, that is. That might be too much to ask, though, within Paint.NET's limits. Other than that, it's basically photo-realistic.

Hmm.. Its possible to soften the image a bit or mark the areas out and then soften (by using the Soften Portrait), and then turn up for the saturation..

It makes the color stronger in the areas where the (blured - soften) had been made, and then looks like a color reflection on the metal.

Its like Glow, but glow, makes the light on metal all too strong.

[RailgunStudios]

Hey everyone I've only been on the forums for a couple days, but I'd like some criticism on this "painting" I recently completed using the smudge and brush plugins.

[yellowman]

I think you have done a great job with the smudge, the image looks nice, all the elements are well drawn and arranged,

but in my humble opinion, the mountains needs some work, not the texture itself but the colors,

especially the black (or dark brown) it is making a strong contrast with the white, and give them a chrome effect finish,

so if you tone it down or better change it to blue ( a little bit darker than the existing one) will look much better,

but I still like as it is, though.

BTW, there is a cutoff along the right side of few pixels, not sure if you meant that purposely.

[SAND33P]

@ Railgun Studios

Really shows what paint.net can do when someone with real artistic talent get their hands on it (Im not downgrading anyone else's work by saying that)

The mountains could use abit of work, abit of sharper definition would look great.

The canvas texture you added looks great, this could pass for a real painting.

The clouds on the left seem a little flat though.

Past all that, its an amazing piece, the trees and fog add a real sense of size to the image.

I think more use of noise, different textures and layer blends could make this epic.

A promotional wallpaper made for a music production endeavor undertaken by me and a friend. I was going for a very powerful effect, more focused on a 'Bang! In your face' approach, The text is repeated across all the gallery pics so it doesnt matter if you cant read it well

Really like how it turned out

Edited April 10, 2012 by SAND33P

[Xzerizon]

Good effect, SAND. I like the rainbow noise/zoom blur stuff you did in there- makes it look really unique and cool. The stereo style thing you did as the background is awesome, too.

The text is hard to read, and since it's hard to read, it just ends up obstructing the picture. I recommend using a more solid approach to the text; it would look really cool!

[chimay12321]

This is a wallpaper for a Gaming Community I've been working on, it still isn't really finished yet, I'd like to add some big diamond shards that reflect an screenshot of the variousity of games we're playing at the community. Just to add some depth. I'm still looking for a good way to do these particular shards.

If you have any tips for improvement, tips for making the reflecting shards or tips for other ways to bring more depth in the wallpaper, I'd be pleased to hear them!!

Edited October 25, 2012 by chimay12321